US President Donald Trump praised the artificial intelligence chatbot made by Chinese start-up DeepSeek at a Republican policy retreat in Doral, Florida, on Monday. "Today, and over the last couple of days, I've been reading about, China and some of the companies in China, one in particular coming up with a faster method of AI and much less expensive method and that's good, because you don't have to spend this much money," he said. A frenzy over the artificial intelligence chatbot made by DeepSeek was upended stock markets Monday and is fuelling debates over the economic and geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China in developing AI technology. Trump made that point as well. "The release of the DeepSeek AI from a Chinese company should be a wake up call for our industry is that we need to be laser focused on competing to win." DeepSeek’s AI assistant became the No. 1 downloaded free app on Apple’s iPhone store Monday, propelled by curiosity about the ChatGPT competitor. Part of what’s worrying some U.S. tech industry observers is the idea that the Chinese start-up has caught up with the American companies at the forefront of generative AI at a fraction of the cost. But hype and misconceptions about DeepSeek’s technological advancements also sowed confusion.